


Love Must Be... Mango?

by eirenical (chibi1723)



Category: Cornetto "Unexpected Love" Commercial
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Best Friends, F/F, Food as a Metaphor for Love, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, Ice Cream, M/M, Oblivious Partners
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:00:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28144254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chibi1723/pseuds/eirenical
Summary: When a scheming Boy made plans to use an innocent Fah to make an oblivious Aon jealous, no one asked Fah how she felt about it.  Well, she feltplentyabout it, and as soon as Boy stops being so skittish and lets himself get within reach, she's going to give him an earful.  Two earfuls.  It's a good thing she has a best friend of her own who understands... perhaps even better than Fah realized.
Relationships: Aon/Boy (Cornetto "Unexpected Love" Commercial), Fah (Cornetto "Unexpected Love" Commercial)/Original Female Character
Comments: 6
Kudos: 8
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	Love Must Be... Mango?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Suaine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suaine/gifts).



"Well, I suppose you can give this one points for a mild amount of ingenuity, but still… blue ice cream? For a girl named Sky? How corny can you get?"

Fah looked up from the ice cream cone as her friend, Nahm, sit down beside her. Fah leaned over and bumped her shoulder. "Perhaps you'd like to share in my blue bounty, then? My friend named 'Water?'"

Nahm sat back against the bleachers and laughed. "No thanks. My teeth have had about all the sweetness they can take just from knowing this happened." Fah shrugged and began eating. Free ice cream was free ice cream, after all. 

"So… which intrepid freshman was it this time?"

"Boy."

"…Boy?"

"Yes." When no further comment was forthcoming, Fah turned to look at her friend. Nahm was frowning, her brows scrunched together into a tight little vee. Fah reached out and pressed her thumb to it, smoothing out the wrinkles that had formed it. When Nahm batted at her hand, Fah reached out and touched the ice cream to her nose in retaliation, laughing as Nahm promptly went cross-eyed to stare at the small dot of blue now standing out in stark relief on the tip.

Nahm pulled out a handkerchief, rolling her eyes as she wiped the ice cream away. "That's disgusting. Do you have any idea how many germs live inside the human mouth?"

Fah resumed licking at her ice cream cone—cliched it might be, but she always had been partial to blueberry ice cream, and there really was no point in letting it go to waste. "I have no doubt you'll tell me."

But Nahm didn't. Instead, she bumped their shoulders together, once more. When Fah finished her ice cream, Nahm finally asked, "Are you absolutely certain it was Boy?"

Fah turned. "Yes. I'm absolutely certain. Aon pointed him out to me, specifically. He was up on the balcony, of all places. I couldn't even thank him properly."

"Aon??"

"Yes, Aon."

"Your Aon."

Fah shoved at Nahm's shoulder. " _Nahm._ What is the matter with you? Some random boy buys me gifts at least once a week. It's what comes of being a cheerleading star. What's the big deal this time?" Fah turned away, muttering under her breath, "And Aon's not my anything."

Nahm snorted. "Please. He's been stuck to your side since grade school and is the only boy you've tolerated hanging around you for that long. If he isn't yours, whose is he?"

"Oh my God, Nahm. You make him sound like a stray puppy. Fine. He's my friend, but that doesn't make him mine any more than it makes _you_ mine. And seriously, why is this such a big deal?"

But once again, Nahm was silent and, try as she might, Fah couldn't get her to talk again before it was time for class. Fine. That was… fine. She'd just have to figure it out on her own then. Surely Aon would tell her if there was something she needed to know. Even if he wasn't hers.

* * *

The next day it was a mango juice and Aon looking acutely embarrassed as he pointed out where Boy was hiding at the entrance to the boys' room across the quad. Fah tried to ask him about it, to find out what was going on and why he was acting as a go-between, but Aon couldn't get away from her fast enough, seeming far too eager to wash his hands of the whole thing.

Fah had given that drink to Nahm—mango was her favorite, and she'd been more than happy to have it passed along… until she had found out where it had come from. She'd passed it back barely half-finished the moment that Fah told her.

"Seriously, _warn_ a girl. I don't need Boy's secondhand flirting rubbing off on me. Especially not if he's this terrible at it. Really. Flirting by drink? Who does that?"

Fah sighed as she took the drink back. "Does it matter? A free drink is a free drink. And really, it's… I don't know. Cute?"

Nahm rolled her eyes. "Cute. You think he's cute?"

"I didn't say _he's_ cute," Fah was quick to point out. "I think the flirting method is cute." At Nahm's aghast look, Fah said, "Well, it's certainly more practical than flowers, isn't it?" She bumped Nahm's shoulder. "At this rate, by the time we reach Friday, he'll have worked himself up to bringing me a four-course meal."

* * *

The day after that, it was a pink concoction that Fah couldn't have described if she'd tried apart from it being very… pink. Aon looked even less enthused to be handing it over. Before he could run off this time, Fah caught at his hand. There was something… off… about the way he wouldn't quite meet her eyes. Fah gave his hand a squeeze. "What's all this about, Aon? If Boy is really interested in getting close to me, shouldn't he, I don't know, at least introduce himself?"

Aon took in a breath as if he were about to speak, then slowly let it out, saying nothing, eyes still downcast.

Fah frowned. "Aon… if something was wrong, you'd tell me, right?"

He shrugged.

Fah shook Aon's hand lightly in hers. "You've been my friend since we were kids. If something's bothering you, I want to know." For a second time, Aon took in a breath as though to speak, then let it out without saying a word. Fah's eyes flicked quickly to the pink tea, then narrowed. "Is it… is Boy bullying you into doing his flirting for him? Because he knows we're friends? Is that what's going on?" Fah whipped around to glare at the Freshy Night billboard that Boy had been hiding behind while Aon gave her the latest drink. 

…subtle, Boy was _not_.

Fah turned back towards Aon, squeezing his hand tightly. "If he's bullying you or taking advantage of you just because we're friends, he and I are going to have _words_ , Aon. You tell me. You tell me _right now_."

Aon held up his other hand, waving frantically at her, his one fully visible eye going so wide as to show the whites around the edges. "No, no, no! Fah, it's not like that. He didn't bully me. He just… asked." His gaze dropped then, and his next words were mumbled so quietly that Fah almost didn't catch them. Something about payment? And black hojicha ice cream?

… _oh_.

Fah smoothed down Aon's jiujitsu uniform, patting softly at his arms until he calmed back down. "OK, Aon. That's… that's fine. But maybe tell him that a real man doesn't use a go-between to give gifts to a girl he likes, hm? It's not fair of him to keep putting you in the middle."

Aon nodded, his words exhausted for now, and fled. The moment he was out of sight, Fah passed off the drink to the first person who passed by. She wasn't particularly thirsty, today, anyway.

* * *

On Wednesday it was a green tea latte, and Boy hiding _behind Aon_. Really. He still didn't say a single word, just offered the same wave he always did, then ducked back down behind Aon. And Aon… Aon just looked miserable.

When the two had left, Fah sat down on the bleachers, staring intently down at the green tea, as though it might hold the answers to all of her questions. She wasn't even surprised when Nahm showed up and snatched the drink out of her hands.

"First blue, then yellow, then pink, now green? What is he trying to do, give you a rainbow? Or is he just trying to recover from the absolute cornball move of giving Fah a blue ice cream?"

Fah sighed. "I don't know _what_ he's trying to do anymore."

"What'll it be next? Black?"

"No… no, I think black is reserved for Aon."

"Wait… what now?"

Fah turned to face Nahm, still frowning in thought. "Something Aon said. That every time he acts as a go-between for me and Boy, Boy pays him in ice cream. Black ice cream."

Nahm held up the green tea latte, turning it slowly this way and that, as though examining it for Boy cooties. Finally, she said, "And that's significant… why?"

Fah made a face. "It's Aon's favorite color, that's why. Boy is paying him in ice cream that's his favorite color." Fah stood up and began to pace. "But we also know that Boy _flirts_ by giving people ice cream in their favorite color." She stopped, then turned back to face Nahm. "When this whole thing started, something about it bothered you and you wouldn't tell me. Something about Boy." She sat back down. "Will you tell me now?"

Nahm stopped contemplating the green tea with a sigh and a small shrug, then she stuck a straw into it and took a long slow sip. A beat of silence passed, and then another. Finally, she said, "It's a pretty open secret in bioengineering that Boy… isn't really into girls." As Fah's mouth dropped open, Nahm hastened to add, "We're a small program to begin with, so we kind of all live in each other's back pockets. It's hard _not_ to. And when you spend that kind of time cramming for tests in a lab together with nine other people at 2 AM, you learn things about each other, OK? And look… you know what 'Boy' means, right? At first, most of us thought it was a joke. Low hanging fruit that one of the guys in the program reached up to grab. That 'Boy' is into 'boys.' But… I mean… you _have_ seen the way he looks at Aon, haven't you? Because _we_ all have, and most of us don't get out much."

Fah leapt to her feet. It made sense. It made _too_ much sense. "You don't think…?"

"That he's flirting with you to try to get your poor oblivious friend to notice that his best friend's been pining after him since high school?" Nahm finished off the green tea with a loud slurp of the straw. "Yeah, Fah. Yeah, I do."

There was an odd note in Nahm's voice at that but, when Fah looked back, Nahm was smiling pleasantly at her, the same as she always did. Fah pushed it aside to worry over for later. She had more important things to worry about right now—like the fact that Boy wasn't just making Aon jealous; he was _hurting_ him at the same time. And that was something she just couldn't stand idly by for. She was going to have to do something. She needed a plan.

* * *

"Fah."

Fah turned to face Boy, painting as polite a smile on her face as she could, when what she'd really like to do was smack the smug one off of his. Especially when barely halfway through his introduction, Boy was turning to look across the courtyard, inclining his head in victory at Aon, who was watching from across the way. And really, was Boy _blind?_ How could he miss the hurt that she could see so clearly even from a hundred feet away?

When Aon turned and left—probably unable to watch any longer—Fah reached up and covered Boy's mouth with her hand. "Stop talking." Boy blinked bright, innocent eyes over where her hand was covering his mouth and she could feel the corners of his lips quirking upwards as he shrugged. She frowned. "And stop smiling. You're not anywhere near as cute as you think you are, and I don't appreciate being toyed with."

At that, Boy's innocently blinking eyes widened and he slowly nodded.

"Good." Fah lowered her hand. "Now, I think you and I need to have a little chat, don't you?"

Immediately contrite, Boy nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

Fah gave Boy a good hard shove in the direction she wanted him to move. "Don't you 'ma'am' me, Boy. I don't care how good an innocent act you can pull. You're hurting my friend and you're using me to do it. As far as I'm concerned, you owe us both a chance at reciprocation."

Once Fah had Boy sitting on the corner bleachers, Nahm a reassuring presence a few benches higher up and behind her, she outlined her plan. Boy wanted to make Aon jealous? Mission accomplished. The best way to sell it, she told him, would be to ask Aon to beat him at the jiujitsu tournament that night "to inspire pity in Fah," Boy would tell him.

…not that that would be difficult. Fah had seen them both train. Boy might be bigger, but Aon was more skilled. It would be harder to ask Aon _not_ to beat him. Fah fought back a laugh. Looking back, it was possible that Boy had actually taken up jiujitsu just to get closer to Aon. It would serve him right to get his ass handed to him that way, then.

And once Aon had had a chance to get some of his own back from Boy, then Boy could reveal the truth.

It was perfect.

Fah would enjoy every minute of it.

Once Boy left, significantly more humbled than when he'd arrived, Fah called up to Nahm. "So… want to come with me to watch Aon kick Boy's ass tonight?"

Nahm came barreling down the bleachers to sling an arm around Fah's shoulders and touch their foreheads together. Her eyes crinkled up with how widely she was smiling. "It's a date!"

* * *

Watching Boy get his ass handed to him was exactly as satisfying as Fah had hoped it would be. Seeing the look of pure and absolute pain on Aon's face when it happened? Not so much. Once Aon had fled the arena, Fah helped Boy get back up on his feet and dust himself off. It was Nahm who finally broke the already-brittle silence.

"Well, _that_ went spectacularly well, don't you think?"

Both Fah and Boy turned to glare at her. Nahm shrugged. "What? You were trying to make him jealous, weren't you? I'd say you succeeded."

Boy slumped over like a marionette with his strings cut. "Make him jealous? Yes. Hurt him? No."

Nahm shrugged. "Well, in my experience, jealousy always comes along with a heaping pile of hurt. It's part and parcel of the deal. So, maybe if you were trying not to hurt him, you should have taken a different approach to getting his attention."

Boy lifted his head to glare at Nahm. "Whatever happened to bioengineering solidarity?" When Nahm's only response was another shrug, Boy threw his hands up in the air. "Fine. Since you're such an expert then, what would you have done?"

"Some people respond well to just being _asked_ , Boy."

Boy snorted. "Yeah, because that's worked out so well for _some people_ , huh?"

To Fah's intense surprise, Nahm blushed. "Yeah, well, maybe some people haven't gotten up the nerve to ask, OK? But we're not talking about them, we're talking about _you_. Did it even occur to you to just tell him how you feel?"

Boy stared at Nahm. Nahm stared back. Boy's mouth opened, then closed, then opened again, and finally shut with a 'click' so loud Fah could hear it. Finally, he said, "Did it occur to—? To just tell him—?" He waved his hands in the direction Aon had stormed off. "Of _course_ I tried, Nahm! He blew me off with a 'Yeah, love you, too, man!' and that was that. I try to hold his hand and it turns into thumb wrestling. I wrap an arm around him and he thinks I'm trying to get in some jiujitsu practice. I took him on a _date_ for crying out loud! I paid for dinner, the tickets to the concert, I bought him _drinks_ , and he just thought I was being _nice!_ " Boy buried his face in his hands and let out a loud groan. "I was desperate, OK! I didn't know what else to do!"

At that, Fah couldn't take it anymore. She knew Aon. He was exactly as oblivious as Boy was describing. Still, there had to have been another way than _this_. She let out a short laugh. Once Boy was looking at her again, Fah said, "I'm surprised the flirting by ice cream didn't work."

Boy stared at her for a moment more before breaking out in a laugh of his own… and then another and another. When he'd finally calmed, he said, "Clearly as a flirting technique, that one is lacking. It didn't work on either of you."

At that, Nahm held out her hand and dropped something into Boy's.

A black ice cream.

"Third time's the charm?"

Fah hastened to add, "Yes, maybe so, but this time _tell him how you feel._ " Unequivocally. With no room for confusion. OK?"

Nahm made a face. "And maybe take off the blue shirt while you're at it? Seriously, that was just salt and lemon in the wounds, Boy."

Boy hastened to obey, nearly tangling himself up in the process before getting his sleeves sorted out. As he took off at top speed for the locker room, Nahm leaned into Fah's personal space and bumped her shoulder. "Even odds that they'll be making out in the locker room in five minutes or less. Want to go watch?"

Fah did _not_ want to go watch. She had had more than enough of being in the middle of Boy and Aon's love life as it was. She certainly didn't need to see what they did or didn't get up to behind closed locker room doors. She did wish them both happy, though… if only so she could have a little peace for once. When Nahm shoulder-bumped her again, Fah finally turned to look at her.

Her friend.

_~ He's my friend, but that doesn't make him mine any more than it makes **you** mine.~_

Her best friend.

 _~ I don't need Boy's secondhand flirting rubbing off on me. Especially not if he's this terrible at it._ ~

Since high school.

_~You don't think…~_

_~That he's flirting with you to try to get your poor oblivious friend to notice that his best friend's been pining after him since high school?~_

Always at her side.

_~It's a date!~_

No matter what.

_~Some people respond well to just being **asked** , Boy.~_

_~Yeah, because that's worked out so well for **some people** , huh?~_

_~Yeah, well, maybe some people haven't gotten up the nerve to ask, OK?~_

Fah started to laugh. She laughed until tears tracked down her face, and then she laughed some more. She laughed until she had trouble catching her breath and Nahm had to pound on her back a few times to get her to calm down when she almost choked. Finally, Fah got out between wheezes, "My God. You must think I'm a real idiot by now. No wonder Aon and I get on so well. We're equally hopeless."

"Well, that might be exaggerating just a little, don't you think?"

Fah straightened up and reached out to take Nahm's hand in hers. "No. No, I really don't. I'm hopeless. And I'm oblivious. Because for all these years, I've failed to see exactly what's been in front of me." She tugged lightly at Nahm's hand. "Come with me. I need to get something."

Nahm followed along, trailing behind Fah like she would follow her anywhere that Fah asked. Then again, she always had, hadn't she? Fah had just… never noticed until now. When they reached Fah's destined spot, she pulled some money out of her purse. "One mango ice cream, please."

Nahm inhaled so quickly beside her that the exhale came out as a vague squeak.

It was adorable.

Turning back to Nahm, Fah held out the ice cream cone. "I know that if I were to follow Boy's lead, I'd get you an ice cream based on your name, but I know you better than that." As Nahm reached for the ice cream, Fah pulled it back out of reach. "But just to be clear here, so I don't repeat the mistakes of everyone who came before me and because 'some people respond well to just being asked,' or so I've heard... I am not giving you this ice cream because you are my friend, or because I'm grateful to you for your help tonight, or because of any of the other reasons I can see you concocting in your head as I speak."

Fah reached out and tapped the wrapped ice cream against Nahm's forehead for emphasis. "I am giving this to you because I don't just love you as a best friend; I'm also _in_ love with you. I have been for years, but I never even dreamed you might love me back until… well. You haven't been as subtle through this whole mess as you thought you were. So, are we clear? This is not friendship ice cream or payment ice cream? This is 'I'm in love with you and would like to date you' ice cream. OK? Is that clear?"

At that, Fah held out the ice cream again, smiling widely when Nahm took it with no hesitation. "Yes, Fah. That came across loud and clear. Crystal clear. Caribbean ocean clear." And Fah wouldn't have thought it possible, but Nahm's smile widened at her next words. "And my answer is a—hopefully _just_ as crystal clear—Yes. Yes, I want to date you. Yes, I'm in love with you. Yes, I want to share this ice cream with you, and every ice cream I buy hereafter."

Fah waited a beat before answering. And when she did, she raised an eyebrow in a deliberate tease. "But Nahm, that's _disgusting_. Do you have any idea how many germs live inside the human mouth?"

Nahm let out a peal of bright, unrestrained laughter at that, before wrapping her arms firmly around Fah's waist to pull her close. "You've never been all that good in Biology, Fah… how about I show you instead? Maybe some one-on-one practical demonstrations?"

"Nahm… I think that's the best idea I've heard all week."

And if they got in a little hands-on practice on the way back to the dorms, well… Fah _was_ really terrible at biology. She could use all the extra help she could get.

**Author's Note:**

> A bit of name punnery seems par for the course in this fandom, so to explain:  
> "Fah" means blue, but it also means "sky."  
> "Nahm" means "water."
> 
> There's a pun to be made somewhere about where the ocean meets the sky, but I think I'll refrain. ;D
> 
> (Following notes added after author reveals.)
> 
> Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it! This fic also has [a tumblr post](https://eirenical.tumblr.com/post/639325640596799488/love-must-be-mango-eirenical-chibi1723%22), if you liked it enough to want to share it there.
> 
> And if you'd like to come find me to yell with (or at ;D) me further, either about this fic or this canon or whatever else strikes your fancy, you can generally find me on tumblr @ eirenical.


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